'Once Upon A Time' Recap: Does Emma Finally Believe?

A devilishly handsome stranger — emphasis on the ‘devil’ part — finally opened Emma’s eyes to the secrets behind Storybrooke!

Gossip Girltaught me not to trust Sebastian Stan, and the March 25 episode of Once Upon A Timereminded me why: He may be able to charm the buttons off my remote control, but he’s also one of the shadiest gents around. As Jefferson — Storybrooke’s equivalent to the Mad Hatter — he kidnapped Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) in an attempt to get his daughter back. Oh, did I mention he’s also one of the only characters who know exactly who he is?

In the fairy tale world, the Hatter lived alone with his daughter Grace, until of course, he agreed to do a favor for the Queen (Lana Parrilla). He brought her into Wonderland, where he thought he was helping her get something back from the Queen of Hearts, but she had other plans. She used one of Wonderland’s magic mushrooms to revive her father — you know, the guy she killed in order to get her powers? — and left the Hatter alone to fend for himself. So thoughtful.

(Side note: Did anyone else think it was weird that we never saw the Queen of Heart’s face? Or really heard her voice? And that she referred to the evil queen by her Storybrooke name, “Regina”? There’s definitely more going on with the Queen of Hearts, and I can’t wait to find out what it is!)

Back in Storybrooke, Jefferson explained to Emma that everything Henry (Jared Gilmore) has been saying is true, and the only way to get his “real” daughter back is for Emma to magically sew a hat that could transport him to Wonderland. Sound crazy? That’s what Emma thought too, so she and Mary Maraget went all Brooke-and-Peyton on Psycho Jefferson’s ass and kicked him out the window. And, like all psychos, he vanished into thin air.

But the whole ordeal wasn’t a total bust. Thanks to Jefferson’s psychotic ramblings, Emma is now starting to believe in the existence of another world, so much so that she asked Henry to borrow his book of fairy tales.

She also convinced Mary Margaret to return to her jail cell, and we learned it was Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) who planted the key in her cell in the first place! Just when I was starting to trust him, it turns out out he’s been working with Regina all along.

Remind me never to trust Mr. Gold ever again.

So what do you make of tonight’s episode? What do you think the deal is between Regina and the Queen of Hearts? Who’s Mr. Gold really helping? And, seriously, how badly do you want Jefferson to be in every single episode? Hit up the comments section with your best theories!

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Christine

Posted at 12:55 AM on April 2, 2012

Please tell me I’m not the only person who noticed that the Hatter’s name was Jefferson (as in Airplane, the group that sang ”White Rabbit”) and the daughter’s name was Grace (as in Slick, the singer of said group). Now I’m just trying to figure out the Jefferson Airplane/White Rabbit reference for Paige!

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Posted at 9:16 PM on April 1, 2012

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First off, I love this show. Second, I’ve noticed a lot of people asking where Alice was in this episode and if she was in one of the heart boxes. In the Alice in Wonderland tales, the Mad Hatter was already mad. This episode gave reason to his madness, so I think that Alice’s arrival to Wonderland was later than this episode.

I think Rumpy / Mr. Gold is playing a long con on Regina, even as much as I don’t want to trust him, I can’t help it. I want him to be good so badly! Maybe it’s his accent :P

Maybe the QoH is Regina’s mom? Never thought of it but now it’s something I’m thinking about…

I think I am in love with the Mad Hottie. S.S. was absolutely amazing and the chemistry between him and Emma was far better than her and Booth’s. I agree with the thinking that the Queen of Hearts is Regina’s mother. She wants to be the only queen, wanted leverage over Regina and Regina said she knew “better than most” about what the QoH does to people that cross them. I am hoping that Alice is Grace’s mother- just wishful thinking on my part and not probably true.

I was thinking, If Rumple’s power can only be taken from him by being stabbed thru the heart….Technically Belle could kiss him and he should remain powerful after turning back to himself. He just wouldn’t realize that. He would (as he promised Baelfire)use his power for good as he wanted to originally. Hmmmm. That would be a good way to end their story at the shows series finale. Rumple, Belle and his son. Hmmmm.

Also, does anyone else think Rumplestiltskin and the Queen may be related somehow? Brother, sister etc. That would be a twist. They seem to argue like siblings.

But every spell is broken with true love’s kiss… And his deal is somewhat a curse so maybe he wouldn’t keep his power?

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LISA

Posted at 2:07 PM on March 26, 2012

I love this show very much. I haven’t been this addicted to a show since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I just hope the writers don’t ruin the show in the end as Joss Whedon did for BTVS. I don’t even watch the 7th season of Buffy because the writers seemed to forget the characters journey they wrote for them. I love OUAT even more, and I hope no matter how long the show runs, in the end, I want to see these characters happy. I don’t mind waiting through the twist and turns & misery, but if the last season ends without being true to the theme of true loves kiss, I will be very disappointed. So far this show is the best new thing on tv. I love Gold/Rumple and Belle. They are a must, I mean don’t we all want someone to love us, warts and all? That episode was so well written. I love all the characters. Emma is so cool!

I LOVE Sebastian Stan as the Mad Hatter. He brought an amazing talent to it and to the show. I wish he’d return. I hope he returns and even becomes a regular at some point. I think he has been the best “co-star” so far to come in for one episode. He delivered.

I am wondering if the Queen of Hearts is Regina’s mother. That would explain why she took Regina’s dad’s heart. Also, did anyone see the box above and to the right of Regina’s dad’s? It was glowing … I wonder whose heart that is….

Regarding Gold, I think he is playing a long con on Regina… He’s not on her team… He has his own agenda and when he finds out she’s had Belle all along, God help her.

Going back to tonights story…where was Alice? They said Jefferson had been to Wonderland before… Perhaps with Alice. I wonder if Alice was Grace’s mother. Also, when Jefferson disappeared after going thru the window, does anyone thing he went back?

Finally, Regina’s name was always Regina – in both fairytale and storybrooke. Just like Jeffersons was the same in both.

I think you might be right about the queen of hearts being Regina’s mother. We know that Regina’s mom’s name is Cora and guess what is the latin for Heart? Cor! (add an a at the end to make it a female name and we have Cora). And the queen of hearts “isn’t one for subtlety” is she?!
And by the way the latin for queen is Regina!
I think their names are telling a lot about them….

Im not sure about the original cartoon, but I remember the Johnny Depp version had the queens peeps with false body parts that would fall off and they looked like these guys. I think they were to make the queen feel better about her looks so maybe that explains the need for the vail??

I’m getting sink of the writers giving us background stories and then the character not showing up again in storybrooke (cough cough BELLE!!! IMISS HER!!) so I’m really hoping The Hatter shows back up and might possibly have a Emma/Hatter romance. I thOught his storyline was heartbreaking. I was actually starting to think Emma was believing before he hit him with the telescope.
EMMA IS REALLY STARTING TO TICK ME OFF. I thought I hated Elena(VD) I dislike EMMA more.

P.S Also am I the only one annoyed that we get these background stories almost randomly and then the next weeks we never see the characters again. What happened to Hansel and Gretal?

The reason we don’t see Belle in Storybrooke is because she’s not walking around the streets free like all of the other characters. She’s locked up in a room of the mental hospital being held prisoner by Regina.

And this is the first season of the show, so many of the episodes are spent laying down the back stories of all of the different characters and filling in the gaps about what happened to them in their past lives. With time I’m certain that all of the characters will make another appearance, we need to be patient until then.

And I think Emma is awesome. She’s had a tough life and thus finds is hard to believe in magic and fairy tales, and who can really blame her for that? But the significant thing to take note of is that she’s beginning to believe, and obviously in time she will believe for good. We just have to give her time.